My move from Texas to NC without losing anything

shawncp00

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I decided I would build a thread to talk about moving my reef tank from Austin Texas to Raleigh North Carolina.

Before I did the move I search the web for everything. Success stories to failures. I wanted to ensure I would have the highest success rate possible.

this is the list of items I would keep on hand while moving!

14 gallon brute square containers
Seachem ammonia alerts
Battery pack bubblers (lots) of them
D batteries (again I would get a bunch)
Power inverters
NSW
prime.

The night before the move I unplugged/packaged up everything I wouldn’t need for the tank.
Ie apex, dos, trident, basically the automation stuff.

the morning of the move I unplugged everything else packaged it up.

as I was prepping at the buckets for the move, I wanted to ensure that I got as much clean water as possible. This was to ensure nothing would build up during the drive.

After training the tank down to about 4 inches of water left. I put the coral in buckets with like type species.

all of my smaller fish went in one 14 gallon brute

while I split my bigger fish between two of them.

the last brute was for my live rock I wanted to make sure it stayed submerged to prevent die off.

once everyone was in I put all the containers in our suv. I Put all the lids on started the bubblers, and threw in ammonia alerts to make sure die off wasn’t starting to happen.

“little note” I used power inverters on all my fish buckets and plugged my mp10s up to keep the water moving. I’m sure you could do this with any power head.

Every 6 hours or so I’d stop and check on the livestock.

after about 12 hours of the 24 hour ride I had to do a water change on the large fish buckets as ammonia was starting to creep just a bit.

once we arrived at our destination I plumbed the tank together added new sand. Put the rocks back in and filled her up! I didn’t lose a single fish or coral.

I know people are going to think why didn’t you sell everything and start over? But finding a replacement black, gem, and Achilles to put back in was going to be next to impossible.

I hope this helps you guys if you ever need to move.

also another note we drove straight there.

image.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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hey great job. we have a fifty page thread solely designed on failproof transfers and yours shows the rarity of moving states, as a nice concise step by step process we will link this job you did for sure in our example set, nice job.

the main thing we concern with in the thread is pre rinsing all new sand used to 100% cloudlessness and even if it was not pre rinsed above, its still cloudless that's all that matters in the end. darn nice job.
 

PeterC99

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Really admire your planning and efficient execution! Very well done!

Stories like these give me hope of moving my aquarium one day, when I retire!
 

Cavalina

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Congrats and welcome to Raleigh! several good LFSs here and a thriving reef community. Check out the FishRoom for general livestock and supplies (there's one in Cary, one in Raleigh), and the Reef Farm in north Raleigh (small but cool place--curbside during pandemic though) for healthy specialized coral at fair prices. Welcome again to Raleigh!
 

Ro Bow

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I decided I would build a thread to talk about moving my reef tank from Austin Texas to Raleigh North Carolina.

Before I did the move I search the web for everything. Success stories to failures. I wanted to ensure I would have the highest success rate possible.

this is the list of items I would keep on hand while moving!

14 gallon brute square containers
Seachem ammonia alerts
Battery pack bubblers (lots) of them
D batteries (again I would get a bunch)
Power inverters
NSW
prime.

The night before the move I unplugged/packaged up everything I wouldn’t need for the tank.
Ie apex, dos, trident, basically the automation stuff.

the morning of the move I unplugged everything else packaged it up.

as I was prepping at the buckets for the move, I wanted to ensure that I got as much clean water as possible. This was to ensure nothing would build up during the drive.

After training the tank down to about 4 inches of water left. I put the coral in buckets with like type species.

all of my smaller fish went in one 14 gallon brute

while I split my bigger fish between two of them.

the last brute was for my live rock I wanted to make sure it stayed submerged to prevent die off.

once everyone was in I put all the containers in our suv. I Put all the lids on started the bubblers, and threw in ammonia alerts to make sure die off wasn’t starting to happen.

“little note” I used power inverters on all my fish buckets and plugged my mp10s up to keep the water moving. I’m sure you could do this with any power head.

Every 6 hours or so I’d stop and check on the livestock.

after about 12 hours of the 24 hour ride I had to do a water change on the large fish buckets as ammonia was starting to creep just a bit.

once we arrived at our destination I plumbed the tank together added new sand. Put the rocks back in and filled her up! I didn’t lose a single fish or coral.

I know people are going to think why didn’t you sell everything and start over? But finding a replacement black, gem, and Achilles to put back in was going to be next to impossible.

I hope this helps you guys if you ever need to move.

also another note we drove straight there.

image.jpg
nice planning! Looking good!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 73 51.8%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 72 51.1%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 36 25.5%
  • None.

    Votes: 31 22.0%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.4%
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